Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Online business scams incur RM1.5m losses in Labuan - The Sun Daily

LABUAN: The Labuan commercial crime investigation authorities recorded about RM1.5 million in total losses last year, attributed to the purchase of goods and services over the Internet.

Labuan Police chief Supt Muhamad Farid Ahmad said telecommunications fraud via online and the short messaging service (SMS) notched the highest number of cases with RM947,055 in losses recorded.

“This is a worrying situation as the amount hit more than RM1 million in total losses and we believe many victims have remained silent,” he told a press conference after the police monthly assembly, here today.

He said the 419 Scam – or popularly known as the African Scam – cases were the second highest with RM491,720 in losses and e-commerce (online purchase), RM45,705.

In November last year, two women lost their life savings amounting to RM584,100 after falling prey to phone scams, known as the Macau and African scams.

In the first of the cases, a 39-year-old academician who thought she found true love online ended up heartbroken and broke after she fell victim to a romance scam. She lost RM376,100 to her month-old ‘fake lover’ whom she had come to know on Facebook.

In the other case, a 49-year-old housewife was convinced her accounts were jeopardised after being implicated in a so-called money-laundering case. Little did she know her case was just a fabrication, leading to her entire life savings going up in smoke.

The two cases were not isolated as the Labuan police have recorded a total of 37 cases online and phone scams involving RM1,329,110 since January last year. — Bernama